Naked Ambition

Naked Ambition nearly lost me. First, it was a little too heavy on the naked. In between, the author told us about how Washington works, and I thought about making sausage. It's just as interesting as how Washington works. The story had really slowed down. yet, happily for me, it came together and made for a rather interesting tale. The plot involved was complex, and author Rick Pullen played his cards well. The book came to me via Netgalley, and it truly is a rough-looking copy that took some getting used to. I did, and the pleasure was finally mine.

“Naked Ambition” eBook was published in 2016 and was written by Rick Pullen (http://rickpullen.com/). This is Mr. Pullen’s first novel, and the first in his ’Naked’ series.

I received a galley of this novel for review through https://www.netgalley.com. I categorize this novel as ‘PG’ because it contains scenes of Violence and Mature Situations. The novel is set in the Washington D.C. area and in the Caribbean. The main characters of this political Thriller are investigative reporter Beck Rikki and lobbyist Geneva Kemper.

Reporter Rikki has had a successful career, but is now looking for his next big story. He is discretely approached by a man from the Justice Department who points Rikki at a sitting Senator, David Bayard, who is making a run for the presidency. The implication is that the Senator is guilty of illicit financial dealings.

Rikki begins to dig into the story and meets Kemper who is the much younger wife of another setting Senator. She has her own agenda for seeing Bayard taken down. They soon begin a discrete affair. Rikki finds the evidence he is looking for and much more. Rikki finds his life threatened, his home bugged and his travels being shadowed.

Rikki struggles to get the evidence he needs to publish his expose on the Senator before the nomination and election. Rikki discovers that the evidence, the witnesses and even the motives of those involved are not what he had expected.

There are many twists and turns in this political Thriller. I found the 7+ hours I spent with this 376 page novel interesting. I liked both of the main characters, though sometimes Rikki seemed a little mystified as to what was going on around him. The plot was engaging, which is why I finished this novel. It was difficult to keep going some times as I felt that the story was slow and lacked much excitement. I give this novel a 3.4 (rounded down to a 3) out of 5. I am not sure if I will read the future novels in this series.

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